What to expect from Hecate, Drones on the Hecate, T1 Frigs Are Still Fun, Death Defying Comets, Neut Tristan Fits

What to expect from the Hecate:

It's not long until the Gallente T3D, the Hecate, is released. Some of you may be wondering if it will be as strong as the other T3D's, and how you might go about taking one. Today I will try and break down what information we have about the Hecate and try and predict how it will be flown in FW low sec.

I know I said the Hecate looks ugly but after seeing it in game I stand corrected.

The Hecate is looking at some interesting bonuses from its hull and defense modes, namely defensive mode, giving a 33.3% bonus to armour and hull resists, making it the only ship in the game with bonuses to hull tank. This goes to show that the Gallente are and always have been the manliest of the factions. As well as this though, it gets a bonus to armour repair amount. With four low slots, this leads me to believe we are going to see the same low slot lay out as a lot of comets - DCU, SAAR and two mag stabs, complimented by hull tanking rigs. This will utilize the armour tanking bonuses and give some heavy hull buffer. If not this, I suspect a bulkhead will be thrown in, possibly replacing a mag stab for even more tank. We might even see some duel rep with a cap booster. Lots of fun to be had in all cases.

Propulsion mode looks quite uninteresting at first, but with a bit of thought could actually be used in a quite effective way. I just assumed that my Hecate would always have an AB for ultimate brawling power, but as the Hecate has no drone bay (disappointingly) fitting an MWD to a blaster fit could be a good idea. It would mean that when there is a far away target, you can switch into prop mode and burn at them with very good speed, as you would not have armour tank slowing you down. Of course, you will always have scrams to worry about, so like any T3D right now if there is a Griffin 30km off and you're scrammed + webbed by about five other frigs you may have a slight problem. Still though, I suspect that because of this prop mode, solo frig kiters may not be as much of a problem as I thought at first.

The four med slots is interesting as it means we can have a bit of variation in our Hecate fits. Depending on fitting space, dual prop could be a thing, which would actually work really well for a ship like this, as it will be able to stick on targets/pull range while brawling and catch up to distance targets with an MWD. If not dual prop, dual web could also work, just to keep frigs in place better and deliver crushing alpha. I think both choices will be popular.

Lastly is sharpshooter mode, which leads me to believe rail Hecates are going to be a thing. Tracking speed, optimal bonus and MWD bonus (ofc not at the same time) on the same ship could be pretty lethal and I wouldn't be surprised if we see some people trying the kite Hecate. I would condemn them for this of course, ruining such a beautiful manly brawl blaster boat, but still I think it could be relatively effective. It all depends on the finer details of the Hecates stats though, such as fitting space and base speed. If we dont see rails being too popular due to this, the optimal range bonus mixed with null could still be nice to picking off targets on the edge of scram range.

Apparently the French manage to stick around in the future.

Either that or this is some kind of new super French race.

Now we have gone through how the Hecate is likely to be flown, lets talk about how you can fly against it. The Hecate will fall into the same problems that every turret boat does in that tracking distributors and superior range control will cut off its damage. If you see a rail Hecate, getting under its guns shouldnt be too hard if it's not duel web. Even though it has a tracking bonus, landing hits will prove very difficult, and you should be able to slowly break them provided you can break reps. Though this works for rails though, I feel the opposite may not for blasters due to the optimal range bonus in sharpshooter mode. If you try to scram-kite out of the blaster's optimal range, null or even antimatter may deal a lot of dps to you, as if you do fall in their optimal, at scram-kite range your transversal will be quite low, so that's something to keep in mind.

When taking one on as a gang, it's important to keep heavy tackle to the Hecate cant get people in their optimal ranges or burn away and warp off. Apart from that though, it isn't that complicated, they work like any other gun boat so it's just knowing what you're doing. That's not to say it will be easy, these things are going to be a bitch to take down, especially if they are in gangs, as they not only have amazing tank but high dps, so make keep in mind they will soak up a lot of your gang's dps and take a lot of guys out with them if you do feel like fighting them.

In conclusion, I make the prediction now that the Hecate is just going to be one big ball of brawling manly pain, just as strong as if not stronger than the other T3Ds. I am so fucking hyped. Now all we need is a police pursuit version.

Why drones on the Hecate wouldn't actually be that bad:

I know I already have part of this post all about the Hecate this week but I felt like this particular topic required its own part as well.

I have seen a lot in channels and on Reddit people instantly rejecting the idea of drones on the Hecate on the basis of "I dont want Ishtars in my small plexes". Now, honestly I completely understand that people may be unwilling to have more drone ships introduced into the game, after all in almost every ship class, the strongest tend to be drone boats (tristans, worms, vexors, ishtars) however it's important to make the distinction that a drone boat is not what is being asked for. I am basing this off of my own opinion so others may feel differently, but I also feel a dedicated drone boat T3D would be stupid. What I do think would be pretty cool though, is a drone bay to launch three light drones, like the comet, in exchange for a slight nerf on base turret damage.

Gian Bal: that covers the whole hecate section

Gian Bal: and a lot more colorful

Gian Bal: takes 5 mins in paint for good results

I feel this would be good for the Hecate because it allows it to have a bit more utility when dealing with targets if it can put warriors on far away ships, for example an ewar boat. Though the benefits are not really the focus here, what people seem to talk about the most is that it would usher in a new age of dominating drone boat Hecates that can take on anything it wants. Drones would not make the Hecate over powered (any more than a T3D already is) because it would not receive any drone bonuses. This means kite Hecates would not work as well as kite Tristans do because the drones would be extremely easy to kill. It also means these drones will not be dealing large amounts of damage even if you can out track their guns. If there are only three lights, they would act as a compliment to dps or as extra utility, rather than a primary dps source.

My main point is that I feel people overreact when they think about what a Hecate with drones would be like. If they are just a small addition to show if its Gallente dominance than I dont really see it becoming much of a problem. Not that the Hecate needs drones, it's going to rape face either way, but I still think they could work and keep it balanced, or as balanced as a T3D is ever going to get.

Reminder that T1 frigs are still fun:

When it comes to FW solo PvP, frigs are normally the way to go. T1 frigs are normally seen as a great way for people to get into solo PvP and have a bit of fun without losing too much isk. This is what I used to do when I started solo PvP - get a dual rep Incursus, run around on stream for three hours and die a couple times. Eventually I moved onto navy frigs, T2 frigs and bigger ships. It got to the point though were I just stopped considering T1 frigs when I was thinking about what to fly next. However recently I have been messing around with them again and have actually found myself really enjoying it.

Everyone wants to love the Rifter, it's a shame it's just so shit.

On stream I have been flying the neut Tristan a lot. This is mainly because I feel the neuts give me the ability to pick fights with stronger ships such as comets or dessies, though off stream I have revisited the Atron and Breacher as well. I would fly the Incursus again but flying it is a constant painful reminder that the new model is shit and it can never joust again.

Mainly I have found flying these ships to be fun just because of how simple they are. There is a lot less stress in getting blobbed or just getting killed because it's on 10m as opposed to 30-40m and less to worry about as you're flying a frig (for example gate camps, bait ect. They still exist but are a lot less of a problem with frigs). As well as this though, with the right matchup the fights can be just as tense and blood pumping as solo BS's.

The only main problem with flying T1 frigs I see is the inability to take fights outnumbered, which is arguably one of the best parts of solo PvP. T1 frigs simply do not have the tank or dps like AF's or T3D's do to take on several ships at a time, even if they opponents are shit fit. This is one of the reasons I was put off by them for such a long time, though if you can look past this they still provide entertaining PvP content if you know how to pick your targets. Also, that's not to say they can never fight outnumbered. For example, the other day I managed to take an Inquis and Executioner in my Tristan. Granted the Inquis does minimal dps and the Tristan is a strong ship, but it shows that if you know what your ship can do you can take on lots of different targets.

Still no idea why I thought that comet was cloaked at the time, watching it back I realize how stupid that was.

I guess my main point today is that if you're looking for new ships to try out in your solo PvP adventures, dont forget the T1 frigs, as nooby as they are they are still really fun when you get the right fight.

What's going on with me:

This week I had some kind of legendary comet in my solo PvP that took out ten other ships before being killed by an Algos, which had gone down to half structure in the fight. It's rare my comets last half an hour let alone over two streams.

I had so much fun with this comet I actually made one of its fights fight of the week, as you can see below, but I got loads of other awesome fights with it as well. Here are some of best km's I got with the comet:
https://zkillboard.com/kill/47389843/
https://zkillboard.com/kill/47389756/ - 1% hull survival!
https://zkillboard.com/kill/47389443/
https://zkillboard.com/kill/47389293/

https://zkillboard.com/kill/47390572/ - rip

I should be uploading some of these fights to YouTube so keep an eye out for them.

Apart from that, I am trying a solo Typhoon again, but I am yet to get a fight with it. Will probably get blobbed, will be fun.

Fight of the week:

I actually managed to get a really fun fight this week were I come out on top. I was flying ofc the brilliant man tanked woop woop comet.

Honestly I consider it mostly luck that I managed to warp away from that, but even if I didnt get out it was still a really fun fight.

The catalyst was actually quite easy to take down because it had 125mm rails fitted instead of blasters. If I knew this I would gone for a tighter orbit as I would of been tracking better than him (even though he has a bigger tracking bonus, he is a bigger hull) but either way I managed to keep range and break him down before he could kill me.

When the Tristan came on field I thought that was the end, as I would not of been able to tank their combined dps, though the catalyst went down soon after the Tristan came in, and then for some reason the MWD shield fit tristan had decided to burn directly towards me, leaving him 1km away when the catalyst died. This meant I could get a scram and web and keep the tristan locked down for me to apply my dps.

When the Algos came on field once again I thought it was the end. I was expected overwhelming dps from the drones to kill me before I could take out the tristan, but as the tristan only had a MSE in it's favor I once again managed to kill it before the Algos could make a difference. I was left on a very small amount of hull by the time I decided I had to leave, and for the third time thought it was the end. Somehow though, the impending doom of the Algos' drones never came, and I managed to skillfully moonwalk away. Overall, a really fun fight, where I didnt manage to get myself killed.

Catalyst km
Tristan km

Fit of the week:

As we were talking about T1 frigs today I thought it would be a good idea to share a nice little T1 frig fit. It's not really unknown but it's a great example of how fun T1 frigs can be. I present the neut Tristan:

This fit is hated by many due to how broken it can be at times. I have had a lot of fun with it in the past, taking on countless dessies and sometimes even AF's. Its neuting power simply allows it to take on anything that relies on cap, making for really fun fights and smug kill mails.

So this fit is hull tanked, making for maximum manliness. I decided to fit a reinforced bulkhead over a DDA because I feel this fit often relies on surviving long enough to neut out their opponent rather than trying to deal lots of dps, so the extra buffer can often give you enough time to turn off their guns before you die.

I also fitted a nos instead of a third neut which is optional, as a third neut works fine as well, but personally I prefer the nos. This is because with the AAR and neuts, this is an extremely cap intensive fit that often cannot wait for a cap booster to reload and keep applying neuts or get of that life saving rep. The nos can keep you just above capped out while you wait for the cap booster and make sure you can keep your mods on that extra bit longer. A lot of people say that because you are neuting them, or because you have a cap booster, the nos often wont be working, but that's ok because those are not the times the nos is useful. If you have just poped a cap booster, your nos will not work, sure, but you already have full cap so that dosnt matter. If they are neuted to the point where your nos wont work anymore, that's fine as well because you wont need to use your rep as they wont be applying dps anymore. What this nos is great for is that part in between where you are almost out of cap just before your cap booster reloads and they are still hitting hard with their guns.

This fit requires a 1% powergrid implant to get a T2 AB, otherwise go meta. It's a very tight fit so if your skills are not great consider a meta DCU or a T2 powergrid rig.

Overall just apply neuts, stagger them later into the fight and just prey you neut them out before you die. You can take pretty much any ship that has guns or tank running on cap. If you get kited, just apply drones and laugh.

Battle Report of the week:

I legit could not find anything interesting in either Black Rise or Placid this week, I asked around and looked at the killboards, got nothing. Dont blame me for being shit at finding interesting fights, blame alliances for not fighting enough!

Seriously though sorry I cant find anything this week, it happens.